New program aims to make math education more accessible to Indigenous students.

– Two’s company; three’s family. The Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court has recognized all three adults in a polyamorous relationship as the legal parents of their daughter born in 2017. In his decision, the judge wrote there was no reason why the relationship would detract from the child’s best interests.

– Last year, 104 unions were certified in previously unorganized workplaces—the highest number in a decade. The upswing can be traced to changes to the provincial labour code, which allow the Alberta Labour Relations Board to certify a union without a vote, as long as more than 65 percent of bargaining unit members support it.

– An educational program called Math Catcher is aiming to make mathematics more accessible to Indigenous students by highlighting the patterns in traditional weaving, the strategies behind salmon harvesting, and more. Veselin Jungic, the Simon Fraser University professor behind the program, hopes it will encourage more Indigenous kids to further their math education.

– P.E.I. has removed the word “handicapped” from five pieces of legislation, the result of lobbying by 19-year-old Hannah MacLellan. The word has been replaced by “persons with a disability,” which MacLellan argues is less demeaning.

THE BAD NEWS:

The fentanyl crisis is not letting up throughout Canada.

– The fentanyl crisis isn’t letting up. Nearly 4,000 Canadians died from opioid overdoses last year, with 72 percent involving some version of fentanyl. British Columbia was the hardest-hit province, with 1,399 victims, though proportionally, deaths in Ontario have risen more.

– Allegations of sexual harassment from female Inuit workers are rampant at Baffinland Iron Mine Corporation’s Mary River mine. One worker told Nunatsiaq News how her non-Inuit colleagues allegedly ask for sexual favours and her supervisors won’t intervene. Last year, just 12.5 percent of the site’s employees were Inuit, and of those, most were men.

– With no LGBTQ-friendly seniors’ residences in Halifax, some LGBTQ folks are going back into the closet, fearing discrimination or mistreatment in nursing homes. And as Baby Boomers age and the senior population skyrockets, the need for inclusive housing is becoming more and more urgent.

– At 45,000 square kilometres, Wood Buffalo National Park is the largest in the country. But climate change, tar sands activity, and hydro development have led to decreasing water quality and quantity, deformed fish, and high levels of mercury in fish and bird eggs. That, in turn, has led to less traditional food for local Indigenous communities.

New programs across the country are allowing kids to build their own book collections.

– Having fun isn’t hard when you have a library card—or when you can build your own personal book collection. Since February, Winnipeg non-profit Share the Magic has donated books to nursery and kindergarten classrooms each month. Meanwhile, Calgary’s Love With Humanity Association has founded a multicultural outdoor library with books in Punjabi and Urdu.

– Hiking, fishing, and fire pits are a recipe for happiness—and Pride. Yukon’s first summer camp for LGBTQ adults in Faro filled up in days. Founder Roger Bower came up with the idea after noticing that there was little LGBTQ programming outside of Whitehorse, and has been delighted with how welcoming the 350-person community has been.

– Toronto theatre awards are becoming more inclusive for non-binary performers. The Dora Mavor Moore Awards is scrapping male and female categories. Instead, it will celebrate outstanding performers in dance, opera, and theatre, regardless of gender. Volunteer jurors will also undergo anti-bias training on equity, diversity, and gender inclusivity.

– Ready to learn how to hunt goose? The Cree Trappers’ Association and Cégep de Saint-Félicien are starting a traditional skills college program. Elders, land users, and accredited college instructors will teach the fundamentals of Cree lifestyle, including hunting, fishing, and building traditional homes. The program expects to welcome its first cohort of students in 2019.

THE BAD NEWS:

Hundreds of families remain on daycare wait-lists in Nunavut.

– As Alberta MLAs were voting on an abortion clinic buffer zone bill—one that would create a 50-metre protester-free area around clinics—the handful of United Conservative members in attendance all walked out of the chamber, only to return once the vote was over. The caucus has declined to comment on or engage with the subject.

– The highly contagious whooping cough is being significantly under-reported in Ontario, according to a new study. The researchers estimated that between 2009 and 2015, there were 12,883 cases in the province of people older than age one, but only 1,665 were reported to public health officials. This might be because doctors aren’t testing for it, have trouble diagnosing it, or simply aren’t notifying public health.

– In 2012, the Harper government introduced a career transition program for veterans, allowing them to claim up to $1,000 spent on career counselling, resumé help, and other job placement support. A recent internal audit at Veterans Affairs found that between April 2013 and March 2015, 335 vets applied for reimbursement—but only 40 got paid.

– More than 700 people are on daycare wait-lists in Iqaluit. The two-year-long list means many family members will have to drop out of work placements and training programs to take care of their children. Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada has promised to build a centre this summer, but its 60 spots are barely a drop in the bucket.

New courses are being offered to boost knowledge of Indigenous languages across Canada.

– Keep speaking truth to power, comrades. In 2016, Ontario nurse Sue McIntyre made off-the-cuff comments about workplace violence at a union conference. Unbeknownst to her, the union included those comments in a press release, which a local newspaper then picked up, and her hospital fired her. But in February, a labour arbitrator determined that while her remarks may not have been completely accurate, dismissal was too severe, and she was fully reinstated.

– The number of Canadians conversant in an Indigenous language dropped to 15.6 percent in 2016, from 21.4 in 2006. To combat this, several organizations are offering free lessons. Regina’s mâmawêyatitân centre is offering a 12-week course in Cree (also streamed on Facebook). Meanwhile, Nikanite First Nations Centre at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi offers beginner and intermediate Innu lessons, and is looking to develop for-credit courses.

– Undergrads at Memorial University in St. John’s, N.L., have revived the Black Students’ Association. Its first event in February featured a discussion about living as a person of colour in the province, as well as free tickets to Black Panther. The founders hope to hold monthly events to help connect students of colour, and to change the stereotype that Newfoundland is only home to white folks.

THE BAD NEWS:

Greyhound is cutting routes in B.C. and the Yukon.

– Goodbye professor pensions, and hello endless sessional lecturer contracts. A new study from the Centre for Policy Alternatives has found that 53 percent of workers in Ontario’s post-secondary sector are precariously employed. This includes more temporary work and unpaid overtime, no benefits, and having to juggle multiple jobs.

– Greyhound is eliminating its routes from Prince Rupert, B.C. to Whitehorse, as well as all routes on Vancouver Island, citing low ridership and $70 million in losses over six years. No other passenger bus serves the Prince George-Whitehorse corridor, and low-income and elderly residents may become cut off from the rest of the province.

– Enough mercury to fill 23 Olympic-sized pools is frozen in the Northern Hemisphere, a study in Geophysical Research Letters has found. As permafrost thaws more rapidly, that mercury will be released into the environment, moved up the food chain and eventually reach humans, where it could lead to neurological problems.

Canadian transgender inmates will now serve in men’s or women’s facilities based on how they self-identify.

– Holy water-spritzing protesters, begone! As of February 1, anti-abortion activists can no longer protest within 50 metres of Ontario abortion clinics, or within 150 metres of the home of health care professionals who provide abortion services. Violators will face fines up to $5,000 and six months in prison for first offences.

– Mikisew Cree First Nation in northern Alberta is headed to court to make sure the federal government consults Indigenous communities when drafting statuses likely to affect their treaty rights. Hearings began at the Supreme Court in January.

– After years of unsafe conditions, transgender inmates in federal penitentiaries—no matter their anatomy or the sex listed on their documents—will now serve their sentence in a men or women’s facility based on how they self identify. They must also be addressed by their correct name and pronoun.

– Low-income residents of Ingonish, N.S., don’t have to worry about making it to the doctor, the bank, or the supermarket anymore. The town’s council has partnered with a local cab company to offer free rides to “anyone who is financially strapped.” The program has about 15 regular users.

THE BAD NEWS:

Inuit living in Ottawa face significant barriers to health care.

– Eight young people have died by suicide in the four First Nations that make up Maskwacis in Alberta between November 2017 and January 2018. Meanwhile, a new study found that Indigenous youth made up 71 percent of the suicides reported to Alberta’s Office of the Child and Youth Advocate between 2012 and 2017. “Our people have a sense of hopelessness,” Samson Cree Nation band councillor Katherine Swampy told APTN.

–  Nearly 40 percent of students at the University of Saskatchewan are struggling with food insecurity, according to a new study. Indigenous students, those who are parents, and international students are particularly likely to go hungry—and rising tuition and rents play a significant role.

– Pro journalism tip: Don’t give Nazis column inches. The editor-in-chief of a University of New Brunswick student paper was removed from her post after publishing a Q&A with and an op-ed by the head of a white supremacist group that distributed anti-Indigenous posters on campus. The op-ed, since removed from the paper’s website, argues residential schools were the only way “to civilize an… uncivilized society.”

– Despite being close to family doctors, well-equipped hospitals, and reasonably priced food, Inuit living in Ottawa face significant barriers to health care, the Urban Indigenous Health Database Project has found. These include low incomes, no health cards, and cultural issues like difficulty trusting health care providers and a scarcity of traditional medicine.

– Meanwhile, halfway across the country, music lovers were allowed to bring overdose kits to a music festival. WayHome organizers in Ontario originally banned the lifesaving kits because they fall under the category of “drug paraphernalia.” The policy has since been amended allowing attendees to switch out syringes for just-as-effective nasal sprays at the gates.

– In Clyde River, Nunavut, the community banded together against corporate Canada and triumphed. Inuit protesters won a nearly six-year battle to stop Petroleum GeoServices from using seismic testing to search for oil and gas deposits in their water, a process that risked killing or maiming mammals that the community relies on for food and work.

– After a five-year drinking water advisory that affected more than 800 residents of the White Bear First Nation, in Saskatchewan, plans are finally underway to deliver clean drinking water—but the project won’t be completed until December 2018. Still, the announcement is part of a larger promise from the federal government to wipe out long-term drinking water advisories on reserves by 2021.

THE BAD NEWS

– The families of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls say the national inquiry has already failed. The process, they say, is broken. Not only does it not hold police to account, but one commissioner and a number of senior staff have already resigned. The families are calling for a “hard reset.”

– In Toronto, a sexual assault case takes one step back. After what seemed like a historic ruling in favour of victims, a judge has now overturned the conviction of Mustafa Ururyar for the alleged sexual assault of Mandi Gray. Gray says the message sent to those who have been assaulted is “don’t bother reporting.”

– For the first time in 10 years an LGBTQ refugee support group did not march in Vancouver’s Pride parade— where uniformed police were invited to join. Rainbow Refugee says its members expressed concern over police’s connection with the Canadian Border Services Agency. “There are clear patterns of racism in who is detained,” the group said.

– A barrage of studies published in July has shown that climate change is even worse than we thought. One study suggests the planet has been getting warmer for longer than we thought, while two others say there’s little chance the world will stay within prescribed warming limits.